Fracking is a big deal where ever it occurs AND chemical spill$ can occur!!!

From an Article by Reid Frazier, Allegheny Front, November 17, 2022

The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection has fined the natural gas drilling company CNX some $200,000 for spilling natural gas production fluids at well sites in Greene County, Pennsylvania.

The spills took place between 2019 and 2021, all in Richhill Township. (Greene County is in the extreme southwest corner of Pennsylvania bordering West Virginia on the south and west.)

The largest spill took place on September 18, 2019, in which approximately 40 barrels, or 1,680 gallons, of production fluid leaked out of a containment structure and spilled on the ground at CNX RHL 71 and RHL 87 well site.

The PA-DEP said the company tried to make repairs to the containment and remove fluids from the site. But CNX “postponed full remediation nearly 70 days due to its ongoing hydraulic fracturing activities,” according to a PA-DEP press release. In total, the company had to remove nearly 1,400 tons of contaminated soil at the site.

Another spill occurred at the site on January 23, 2021, in which 420 gallons of fluid discharged onto the ground due to an “equipment failure.” Another spill of 40 gallons occurred three months later.

A smaller incident occurred in December 2019, in which 30 gallons of fluid leaked out of containment and into a sediment basin at the company’s RHL 4 well pad. According to the PA-DEP, “CNX postponed removal of contaminated soil until hydraulic fracturing was completed, and the discharge continued for days.”

The company ended up removing nearly 2,000 tons of contaminated soil from the site.

“Delays like these are unacceptable. PA-DEP expects, and the regulations require, prompt reporting and cleanup of spills and that operators will take measures to prevent future incidents,” said PA-DEP southwest district oil and gas manager Dan Counahan, in a statement.

Production fluids are a byproduct of the drilling and fracking process in oil and gas production. They can contain high levels of naturally-occurring metals, radioactive materials, and salts, but also can contain fracking chemicals. The fluid is too toxic for disposal in municipal wastewater facilities and is typically disposed of in deep injection wells.

The company paid two fines, of $125,000 and $75,000, for the violations. The money will go toward the state’s fund to plug abandoned oil and gas wells.

>> This story is produced in partnership with StateImpact Pennsylvania, a collaboration among The Allegheny Front, WPSU, WITF and WHYY to cover the commonwealth’s energy economy.

Natural gas is primarily methane, i.e. CH4

From the Republican & Herald, Pottsville, PA, October 18, 2022

Schuylkill County, Penna — Cleaner air, progress against dangerous climate-warming and well-maintained highways all are in the public interest, which means that there is no guarantee that any of them will materialize in Pennsylvania — where polarization and parochial politics are more important.

The state government faces a December 16 federal deadline to adopt regulations controlling emissions from gas wells. Although the rules apply primarily to a class of smog-forming gases known as volatile organic compounds, the regulation also would result in reducing emissions of methane — one of the most potent gases responsible for trapping heat in the atmosphere.

Methane is what drilling companies sell as natural gas. Any captured methane would be sold, generating revenue for the companies.

Gas escapes from two types of wells in Pennsylvania — “conventional” vertical wells characteristic of the state’s older drilling industry, and new “unconventional” deep, horizontally drilled wells that mark drilling across the Marcellus Shale fields.

Regulations to better reduce those emissions are required by federal law. Likewise, the federal sanction for not doing so is mandatory rather than discretionary. If the state misses the deadline, the federal government will withhold from Pennsylvania about $450 million in highway funds for this fiscal year. If the delay carries into the next fiscal year, that year’s federal highway funding will be at risk.

This should be an easy one, but this is Pennsylvania. The Department of Environmental Protection broke the regulation into two parts — one covering conventional wells and the other applying to modern wells — after majority Republicans on a House environmental committee objected to the combined rule.

In June, the Environmental Quality Board approved the rule applying to modern wells. And Wednesday, by a 15-3 vote, it approved the regulation for unconventional wells.

But two of the “no” votes came from chairmen of House and Senate committees. They don’t have the power to void the regulation, but they can order a six-month review. That would cause the state to miss the December 16 deadline, putting $450 million in highway funds at risk.

Operators of older wells don’t want to assume the cost of long-overdue environmental regulations. But that narrow interest should not exceed that of Pennsylvanians in healthy air and roads. The obstructionists should get out of the way.

Flares involve incomplete combustion of VOCs & pollution

Drilling / fracking / gas processing are becoming more complex with time

From an Article by Laura Legere, Pittsburgh Post Gazette, November 8, 2021

Pennsylvania’s oil and gas regulators are rolling out a voluntary program meant to encourage fracking and pipeline companies to reduce their environmental impact in ways that go far beyond what’s typically required. But will anyone actually use it?

The suite of 15 good deeds promoted in the program includes minimizing noise, plugging abandoned oil wells, powering equipment with renewable energy, improving water quality in historically polluted streams and planting trees to offset greenhouse gas emissions. Commit to enough good deeds and your earthmoving permit application for building a well pad or pipeline corridor will move to the top of the stack for review, leapfrogging those in line for a standard review.

During years of development, regulators with the PA Department of Environmental Protection have called the initiative an innovative, one-of-a-kind approach unlike any being pursued in other oil and gas drilling states — a way to help enhanced environmental practices catch on with all carrot and no stick.

So far, the industry seems uninspired. In comments on the draft “prioritized review” process, the Pennsylvania branch of the American Petroleum Institute called it “a cumbersome bureaucratic quagmire.”

The Marcellus Shale Coalition, based in Robinson, said it surveyed its members — who produce and transport most of the state’s natural gas — and none were interested in using the program in its current form.

The Wexford-based Pennsylvania Independent Oil and Gas Association, which represents both shale and conventional companies, said its members also wouldn’t use the program as drafted. “The incentive is not worth the substantial additional effort and obligations required,” Dan Weaver, PIOGA’s executive director, wrote. “If the goal of the prioritized review process is to encourage applicants to incorporate superior environmental enhancements into their projects, why make the process so difficult, time consuming and costly?”

A two-part approach — PA-DEP officials say they are trying to find a balance so the program is ambitious but accessible.

The program envisions two classes of enhanced projects. One group would surpass typical practices for building or restoring oil and gas sites, like taking extra steps to protect wetlands, avoiding unnecessary fragmentation of forests, seeding with only Pennsylvania native plants, controlling invasive vegetation and improving habitat for threatened species. Many of those options were informed by practices that the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources requires of oil and gas operations in state forests.

The second group includes an array of practices that aim to clean up environmental scars from past fossil fuel development — like plugging abandoned wells — or to reduce the environmental footprint of the current industry by cutting down on emissions of air pollution and climate warming greenhouse gases.

Projects in the first group are worth one point, and projects in the second group are worth two. A successful application needs a total of nine points.

If the qualifications aren’t demanding enough, PA-DEP fears being flooded with too many priority applications and slowing down review times for standard permits. “We want this to be a success,” Scott Perry, the deputy secretary in charge of DEP’s oil and gas office, said at an advisory board meeting in September. “If, in fact, it is not being utilized, then we will certainly reengage folks to make tweaks to what qualifies and the point system.”

A second attempt — The new program emerged when it became clear that an earlier fast-track permit review, known as an expedited review, wasn’t working. With expedited review, earthmoving plans prepared and certified by a licensed engineer were supposed to be approved within 14 business days instead of 60 calendar days under a standard review.

But environmental groups repeatedly challenged permits issued through the fast-track process in court and won, and PA-DEP was on the hook for their legal fees. In response, the agency started to scrutinize the expedited permits more rigorously, which bogged down the turnaround times.

In addition, ineligible or inaccurate submissions from companies backed up the queue. A 2016 review by PA-DEP found nearly 60% of applications for the expedited earthmoving permits between 2014 and 2016 had flaws that disqualified them from the speedier review process.

PA-DEP decided to scrap expedited review in favor of the incentive program.A key concern voiced by industry trade groups is that the carrot isn’t appetizing enough: There is little certainty that the new prioritized review process will actually result in faster permits.

Review times vary across regions, with the southwest district consistently taking more days on average to issue oil and gas earthmoving permits than the northwest and eastern districts, according to DEP statistics from 2017 through 2020. (DEP attributed a slowdown in the southwest district in 2020 to “significant compliance matters [that] required extensive engineering reviews.”)

The Marcellus Shale Coalition wrote that embarking on a prioritized review process without addressing the inconsistency in permit review times “is akin to building a permanent detour rather than fixing the roadway.”

Industry commenters also said it would be too hard to amass the number of points needed to qualify for a priority review. In some cases, the enhanced environmental projects could cost more than the erosion and stormwater control measures that are the purpose of the permit.

Not giving up yet — Still, neither the industry nor regulators want to give up, especially because the program was crafted with significant collaboration over the last three years.

“The intent of this venture is commendable and worth saving,” Mr. Weaver of the Pennsylvania Independent Oil and Gas Association wrote. “PIOGA is kindly asking that the department does not let all of this hard work, great ideas and concept sharing for enhancing the environment go to waste.”

Mr. Perry has promised PA-DEP will adjust the program if not enough companies are using it. “We are committed to keeping track of the success of this program so that we can hold it out as a model,” he said in September. “I really think it’s a model for all other oil and gas producing states.”

Now that the comment period on the draft is closed, DEP officials said they will review and respond to the comments and use them to make changes to a final draft.

EPA-Approved Fracking Chemicals Include PFAS, a ‘Forever Chemical’

From an Article by Susan Phillips, The Allegheny Front, July 14, 2021

Companies that drill for natural gas in Pennsylvania have used EPA-approved PFAS or pre-cursors to PFAS in fracking operations in other states, according to a report by Physicians for Social Responsibility.

The report’s author, Dusty Horwitt, says that while he couldn’t find evidence the chemicals were used in Pennsylvania wells, Exxon/XTO Energy and Chevron are among the companies that have used it elsewhere. “We can’t be confident that we know everything that has been used in Pennsylvania,” Horwitt said.

That’s because Pennsylvania’s fracking disclosure law allows exemptions for trade secrets, and does not require drillers to disclose chemicals used to drill a well. The chemical disclosure requirements include the fracking process, which uses high-pressure water and chemicals to break up the shale rock and release the gas.

What are PFAS (per-fluoro-alkyl substances, fluorine containing complex organic compounds)?

PFAS, or per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, are a class of 9,252 man-made chemicals, according to the EPA. They contain strong carbon-fluorine bonds that don’t break down easily in the environment, which has garnered them the nickname “forever chemicals.” The strength of the bond makes them useful for waterproofing and stain resistance. They are used to make teflon, food packaging and firefighting foam.

Some, including PFOA and PFOS, are no longer made in the U.S. But use of PFAS continues, and the chemicals have been detected at concerning levels in some water supplies, especially near military installations in Pennsylvania and across the country. Studies of some of the PFAS chemicals show a link to low birth weight, pre-eclampsia and increased cholesterol; exposure also causes impacts to liver, kidney and thyroid health.

There are no easy ways to break [PFAS] down. They are going to be with us forever.

PFAS Used in 1,200 Wells in Six States

The Physicians for Social Responsibility report, Fracking with “Forever Chemicals“, found evidence the substance was used in 1,200 wells in six states between 2012 and 2020. The group obtained documents through a Freedom of Information Act request.

The American Petroleum Institute said PFAS use is limited.

“Although PFAS is not widely used in fracking and only at extremely low levels, API will continue to review available data and analyses to better understand and mitigate the use of these chemicals across the upstream segment,” API spokeswoman Bethany Aronhalt said. “We uphold long-standing procedures to transport, handle, and use chemicals safely, including well-bore integrity, chemical containment, science-based hazard assessments and other operational practices, and we will continue to use science-based measures to further protect health and safety.”

The public records PSR received included thousands of heavily redacted documents, including instances where the companies redacted their own name and chemical identification, or CAS, claiming a trade secret. The documents revealed EPA itself had questions about the approval in 2011:

“EPA has concerns that these degradation products will persist in the environment, could bioaccumulate or biomagnify, and could be toxic (PBT) to people, wild mammals, and birds based on data on analog chemicals, including PFOA and [REDACTED].”

Lack of Transparency is an Issue

The report highlights the difficulty of trying to find out information on the substances, which are often referred to differently in disclosure reports.

Linda Birnbaum, a toxicologist and the former head of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, said transparency around fracking chemicals remains an issue despite the growing epidemiological evidence of impacts like low birth weight, linked to living near fracking sites. When it comes to PFAS, Birnbaum said, it’s ubiquitous and it causes a number of health impacts, including on both male and female reproduction.

“We don’t have just one source of exposure, but we’re also finding it’s just everywhere. PFAS are useful chemicals, they are very helpful for solubilization, and to prevent sticking,” she said. “The carbon fluorine bond is extremely difficult to make, barely exists in nature and there are no easy ways to break it down. They are going to be with us forever.”

Exposure to any fracking chemicals could happen at the well site, but studies have shown that wastewater transport can pose the greatest risk.

>> This story is produced in partnership with StateImpact Pennsylvania, a collaboration among The Allegheny Front, WPSU, WITF and WHYY to cover the commonwealth’s energy economy.

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See the Report here: New Report: Fracking with “Forever Chemicals” – Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR), Dusty Horwitt, July 12, 2021

PSR is proud to publish Fracking with “Forever Chemicals,” a report presenting previously unpublicized evidence that major oil and gas companies, including ExxonMobil and Chevron, have used per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), or substances that could degrade into PFAS, in hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”) for oil and gas in more than 1,200 wells in six U.S. states.

Toxic in minuscule concentrations, these man-made chemicals accumulate inside the human body and do not break down in the environment – hence their nickname, “forever chemicals.” Various PFAS have been linked by the U.S. EPA to low infant birth weights, effects on the immune system, cancer, and hormone disruption.

Westmoreland County Landfill taking Drilling/Fracking wastes

From an Article by Reid Frazier, StateImpact Pennsylvania, October 14, 2020

The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection fined a Western Pennsylvania landfill that accepts solid fracking waste $59,000 for multiple violations over the past year. It’s the latest in a series of legal actions against the landfill.

According to a consent order signed Oct. 7, the Westmoreland Sanitary Landfill in Rostraver failed to maintain up-to-date records, operated beyond permitted hours, and failed to maintain roads on multiple occasions between July 31, 2019, and Sept. 24, 2020.

The agency said the landfill also allowed spills and leaks of leachate — wastewater that seeps through the landfill and must be treated before it’s disposed of.

The landfill accepts oil and gas drilling waste, which is high in salts, metals, and radioactive materials, and many of these pollutants have ended up in the leachate.

Last year, Pennsylvania’s Attorney General’s office said it was investigating the landfill’s handling of its waste, and a judge ordered the landfill to stop sending its leachate to a nearby treatment plant.

That plant, which failed several state water quality tests, found high levels of contaminants common in fracking waste in the leachate it was receiving from the landfill.

In February, the DEP fined the landfill $24,000 for improper disposal of the leachate.

The latest fine is for new violations, which include the landfill’s trucks tracking mud on nearby roads, failing to put adequate soil cover on top of waste, including drilling waste, and failing to maintain equipment.

The department has ordered the landfill to come up with a plan to fix the violations.

West Virginia news of May 30, 2014

StateImpact Pennsylvania is a collaboration among WITF, WHYY, WPSU, and The Allegheny Front. Reporters Anne Danahy, Reid Frazier, Rachel McDevitt and Susan Phillips cover the commonwealth’s energy economy.

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See also: Pennsylvania Regulators Won’t Say Where 66% of Landfill Leachate w/ Radioactive Material From Fracking is Going…”It’s Private” — From Joshua Pribanic and Talia Wiener for the Public Herald, August 5, 2020

In Pennsylvania, the final destination of 66 percent of liquid waste from 30 municipal landfills accepting fracking’s oil and gas waste remains unknown. Oil and gas waste from fracking contains high concentrations of Technically Enhanced Naturally Occurring Radioactive Materials (TENORM), and wherever this radioactive TENORM waste is stored, rain carries water-soluble radionuclides such as Radium-226 through the landfill to create what’s known as leachate – the landfill’s liquid waste. This TENORM-laden leachate is commonly sent to Waste Water Treatment Plants (WWTPs) that are not equipped to remove it before it’s dumped into rivers.

Moms Clean Air Force is being heard locally

From an Article by Rick Shrum, Observer-Reporter, Washington, PA, June 29, 2020

Vanessa Lynch and her husband moved back to the Pittsburgh region following his military service. They thought it was a good place to nurture a family. This is no longer Smoky City Pittsburgh, but she has concerns.

“Pennsylvania is now the second-largest producer of natural gas in the nation, and thus is a significant producer of air pollution, including methane. A recent analysis by the Environmental Defense Fund finds methane in (the state) is leaked 16 times more than what is reported by the oil and gas industry.

“When we moved back … we expected to do so in a healthy and safe environment. We did not expect to have sacrificed so much to ensure the safety of our country, only to return home and not have our own community working to protect us and our children in return.”

Lynch expressed her sentiments Wednesday during a virtual public hearing on a proposed rule to control volatile organic compounds emissions from oil and natural gas sources.

For three hours Tuesday through Thursday, Pennsylvanians could testify at hearings conducted by the Pennsylvania Environmental Quality Board (EQB), an independent 20-member panel that adopts PA Department of Environmental Protection regulations. State PA-DEP Secretary Patrick McDonnell chairs the board.

Testimony focused on a Volatile Organic Compound (VOC)-related rule that was recommended by Gov. Tom Wolf, drafted by the PA-DEP, then approved by EQB by an 18-1 vote in mid-December. It awaits final approval. The rule’s intent is to reduce methane leaks and improve leak detection.

VOCs, by definition, “are emitted as gases from certain solids or liquids and include a variety of chemicals, some of which may have short- and long-term adverse health effects. Concentrations of many VOCs are consistently higher indoors.” The federal Environmental Protection Agency said numerous VOCs “are human-made chemicals that are used and produced in the manufacture of paints, pharmaceuticals and refrigerants.”

The Environmental Quality Board (EQB) estimates that under the proposed rule, VOC emissions would decrease annually by 4,400 tons and methane emissions by more than 75,000 tons.

Moms care for children and the environment

Rajani Vaidyanathan, an electrical engineer from Allegheny County, testified: “In these times of COVID-19, which is a respiratory syndrome, it behooves us to pay more attention to our air quality … I have a metabolic syndrome and my spouse has hypertension, so we really need you, the DEP, to help us be safe in these times with better air pollution controls.”

Karen Knutson testified that she lives in Indiana Township, in a largely rural section of Allegheny County, and spends time in rural Mercer County. She said she has seen “lots of small producing gas wells and they almost seem to accompany every other farm. The tanks are rusty. The wells are old. They are not too far from the house.”

Patrick Henderson of the Marcellus Shale Coalition, an oil and gas industry trade organization, testified Thursday evening. He said: “Pennsylvania’s shale gas industry takes seriously its responsibility to operate safely and efficiently and prides itself in going above and beyond federal and state environmental standards. After all, our employees live in our local communities, and have a vested interest in ensuring that our water, land and air resources are protected and enhanced.”

He included about a half-dozen bullet points on the upside of natural gas. Among them were: Since 1990, domestic natural gas production has risen 50% while methane emissions have declined 43%; gas is generating 40% of Pennsylvania’s electricity today compared with 1% in 2000; and VOCs from power generation have fallen 33% since 2005, about the time shale gas began to boom in Pennsylvania.

Henderson closed by saying that as PA-DEP “moves forward with this rule-making, we encourage all parties to recognize these benefits and foster policies to encourage the continued development and use of Pennsylvania’s natural resources.”

Methane and other hydrocarbons are potent greenhouse gases

From an Article by Don Hopey, Pittsburgh Post Gazette, May 13, 2020

Natural gas drillers in Pennsylvania leaked more than 1.1 million tons of methane into the air in 2017, 16 times the amount they reported to the state, according to an Environmental Defense Fund review.

The review released Wednesday morning found that fugitive emissions of methane from approximately 8,000 unconventional shale gas wells totaled 543,000 tons for 2017, not the 70,150 tons reported to the state Department of Environmental Protection.

Methane emissions from almost 73,000 older, vertical, or “conventional” gas wells totaled another 599,200 tons. The PA-DEP doesn’t collect fugitive emissions data on conventional well sites.

“The fact that natural gas operators are emitting well over a million tons of methane pollution each year into the air Pennsylvanians breathe is unacceptable,” Dan Grossman, senior director of state advocacy at EDF, said in the organization’s news release. “The staggering scale of the methane problem in Pennsylvania makes Gov. Wolf’s proposal to reduce emissions from existing oil and gas operations all the more critical.”

The new EDF review builds on a July 2018 study in the peer-reviewed journal Science that found fugitive emissions of methane from wells across the U.S. in 2015 were 60% higher than the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency inventory estimate.

The new review, which uses 2017 data and emissions modeling developed for the 2018 Science study by EDF and more than 140 research and industry experts, found Pennsylvania methane emissions in 2017 were double the 2015 estimate.

“Tapping into the latest scientific research and best available data has allowed us to more accurately discern the state’s oil and gas methane emissions in a way that best reflects conditions on the ground,” Hillary Hull, EDF senior manager for research and analytics, said in the release.

The new analysis, which also projects methane emissions in the state through 2030, said those emissions will climb to 13 million tons under existing regulations, would drop to approximately 6.5 million tons if regulations were stronger and would increase to 19 million tons if they are weakened.

Gas drilling companies are required to report their fugitive emissions to the PA-DEP so the department can assess the impact of those pollutants on public health based air quality standards.

Allen Robinson, who heads the Carnegie Mellon University mechanical engineering department and helped develop the modeling used in the 2018 Science study, said the department is getting an incomplete picture of the problems posed by fugitive methane emissions.

“Methane is a serious climate issue and also a wasted resource, wasted product issue,” Mr. Robinson said. “And I don’t know why PA-DEP doesn’t measure methane emissions from conventional wells. From a climate perspective it just doesn’t make any sense.”

The EDF said methane, the primary component of natural gas, is a greenhouse gas over 80 times more powerful than carbon dioxide in the near-term warming of the planet, which can contribute to extreme weather events, longer and hotter summers, and increased risk of Lyme disease and West Nile virus. High airborne concentrations of methane can be explosive and can cause a host of health impacts including headaches and dizziness, nausea and vomiting, loss of coordination and trouble breathing.

The EDF review also found that oil and gas operations emitted more than 63,000 tons of volatile organic compounds, which can form ozone, the primary component of unhealthy smog. VOC exposure can cause heart disease and exacerbate respiratory diseases, such as asthma and emphysema.

The Centers for Disease Control has also found that individuals living with those conditions are more at risk for severe illness from other infections, such as COVID-19, the EDF said in its release.

David Spigelmyer, president of the Marcellus Shale Coalition, a drilling industry advocacy organization, issued an email statement that notes “credible federal, state and independent third party organization data shows overall emissions, including methane, continue to dramatically drop as natural gas production soars. . .”

“Since methane is the very product produced and sold, operators have every incentive, especially in this historic low price environment, to capture and market natural gas,” Mr. Spigelmyer stated. “Through new technologies and best practices — such as robust leak detection and repair programs and vapor recovery systems — operators continue to make significant progress to ensure natural gas reaches market,”

The PA-DEP has been working on a new methane emissions reduction rule, and Lauren Fraley, a PA-DEP spokeswoman, said it is set to be published later this month followed by a 60-day public comment period.

“The EDF data highlights the need to reduce methane, and the Wolf administration/DEP recognizes the need to act quickly to reduce methane pollution from wells and other natural gas infrastructure,” Ms. Fraley said.

The regulation, as currently written, will reduce methane emissions by more than 75,000 tons per year, she said in an email response to questions.

“Gov. Tom Wolf and the DEP are to be commended for advancing a methane rule that addresses emissions from the state’s tens of thousands of existing oil and gas wells,” Mr. Grossman said. “It’s essential that the state adopt a strong final rule that protects public health and delivers on the governor’s promise to tackle climate change.”

But the Trump administration announced last fall it would move in the opposite direction and seek to roll back the federal methane rule.

”It is not a priority in this administration to apply methods to reduce methane emissions,” said Mr. Robinson. ”It’s really a matter of having the political will to put structural methods in place. If we wanted to, we could have an impact on the emissions totals.”

Revolution pipeline blast site in Center Twp. Beaver County, PA

From an Article by Reid Frazier, State Impact PA, January 6, 2020

STATEIMPACT PENNSYLVANIA – The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection announced an agreement Friday that includes a record fine against the company responsible for a 2018 natural gas pipeline explosion in Beaver County.

The settlement also lifts a nearly year-long permit freeze on the company’s other pipeline projects, including the cross-state Mariner East pipelines.

As part of the settlement, the PA-DEP assessed a $30.6 million fine against ETC Northeast Pipeline, a subsidiary of the pipeline company Energy Transfer, the largest ever issued by the regulator. PA-DEP Secretary Patrick McDonnell said in a statement the fine’s size was in part due to the company’s failure to comply with an order the agency issued one month after the blast.

“ETC’s lack of oversight during construction of the Revolution Pipeline and their failure to comply with PA-DEP’s October 2018 compliance order demanded serious accountability. Their inaction led directly to this unprecedented civil penalty,” McDonnell said.

At the heart of the settlement was the Sept. 10, 2018 explosion along the Revolution pipeline. A landslide near Ivy Lane in Center Township caused the pipeline to rupture. The subsequent blast shot flames 150 feet into the air, forced evacuations and burned one house to the ground. The fire damaged power lines and destroyed two garages, a barn and several vehicles.

The Revolution had only been in service a week, carrying gas along a 40-mile route between Butler and Washington counties, when the blast occurred. In the Consent Agreement, the PA-DEP determined that “neither temporary nor permanent stabilization … had been achieved” along the pipeline when the landslide and rupture occurred.

As part of its consent agreement, the PA-DEP outlined a laundry list of violations and oversights. Those violations extended well beyond the blast site and included failure to stabilize more than a dozen hillsides, poor stormwater management and more than 2,000 other deficiencies, resulting in impacts to “numerous” streams and wetlands.

The PA-DEP says it found that between February 2018 and December 2019, 19 different hillside sections of the pipeline weren’t stabilized, “resulting in numerous slides”; 352 separate occurrences of accelerated erosion and sedimentation; and 540 different occasions when sediment-laden water was discharged into several western Pennsylvania creeks and wetlands. In addition, the agency found over 2,000 instances where the company failed to properly implement “best management practices,” construction standards required by state permits.

The state found that the company “eliminated at least twenty-three (23) streams by removing and/or filling the stream channels with soil,” resulting in a loss of 1,857 feet of stream channel. It also “(e)liminated at least seventeen (17) and altered at least seventy (70) wetland areas by manipulating and/or filling wetlands with soil.”

The PA-DEP also found the company had plenty of warning signs the hillside was slip-prone but failed to properly manage the site. It says a January 2016 Energy Transfer analysis “concluded that the area of the Incident Site had a high susceptibility to slope failure.” Three months before the blast, a “slip” occurred on the hillside about 30 feet from where the pipe would rupture.

While the company tried to restore the hillside, the PA-DEP said, “neither an engineer nor any other geotechnical expert was consulted by field staff.” The settlement binds the company to restore the site of the blast and other wetlands it damaged, and to monitor the blast site for a minimum of five years.

The PA-DEP says that despite these deficiencies, the company hired a new management team for the pipeline and “has demonstrated its intention to correct its unlawful conduct to PA-DEP’s satisfaction.” Therefore, it’s lifting a hold on permits for Energy Transfer’s other projects in the state. These include the Mariner East pipeline, which carries natural gas products from west of Pittsburgh to an export facility near Philadelphia.

McDonnell said PA-DEP will continue to monitor the company’s activities. “The conditions imposed by this agreement seek to ensure that (Energy Transfer) will get this right. Anything less is unacceptable.”

Environmental groups renewed their criticisms of Energy Transfer, which has already racked up more than $12 million in fines for its violations along the Mariner East.

PennFuture CEO Jacqueline Bonomo said in a statement that the organization “applauds the DEP for holding this bad actor accountable for its environmental degradation and repeated violations.”

The Better Path Coalition, a coalition of environmental groups, said in a statement that many Pennsylvanians “will shudder at the thought that the company will be able once again to get permits for its projects.”

Kurt Knaus, a spokesman for Pennsylvania Energy Infrastructure Alliance, a statewide pipeline industry group, praised the settlement, saying it shows PA-DEP is ensuring pipelines in the state will meet “the highest environmental standards.”

“Skilled laborers who have been waiting to get back to work will finally be back on the job, putting their training to use for the safe, responsible development of critical infrastructure,” Knaus said, in a statement.

Frack well pads & pipelines disturb hundreds of people and thousands of acres

Letter to Editor, Charleston Gazette (Opinion Section), August 4, 2018

Last month, our elected officials were hard at work to fund the Public Employee Insurance Agency (PEIA).

West Virginia Senate President Mitch Carmichael led 22 senators to vote down a proposal from Sen. Richard Ojeda that would have funded teachers’ health care through an increased severance tax on natural gas extraction. Their justification? The natural gas market is “too volatile” to provide adequate, secure funding into the future. What foresight!

Acknowledging this legitimate concern (which may or may not be connected to the fact that these 22 state senators have collectively received over $140,000 from oil and gas companies in the form of campaign contributions, according to the secretary of state), Delegate Mick Bates is proposing a production fee for natural gas extraction, which would not be at the mercy of the market, in contrast to gas prices and a subsequent severance tax.

Revenue from this fee could then be deposited in a West Virginia Trust Fund, such as Ted Boettner of the West Virginia Center for Budget & Policy advocates, where it could compound over time, securing this funding stream in perpetuity.

For years, West Virginians neglected to reap the full financial benefit of the black gold extracted so painstakingly from our hills. Let’s not make this mistake again

Just as the people of West Virginia should be fairly compensated for these resources, our teachers must be compensated for the time, energy and talent they invest in our children, who are our future.

What are they worth?

>>>> Moira Reilly, Morgantown

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Marcellus Shale companies say proposed permit fee hike is too high

From an Article by Laura Legere, Pittsburgh Post Gazette, August 15, 2018

Marcellus Shale companies are resisting a proposal by Pennsylvania regulators to more than double the price of drilling permit applications.

The PA state Department of Environmental Protection says it needs to raise permit fees from $5,000 to $12,500 per shale well to keep the state’s oil and gas oversight program from running out of money by next summer.

In response, shale companies and trade groups that have backed past fee increases now argue in public comments that the department has not sufficiently justified the need for this one.

Other funding sources — including the impact fee on shale companies and the department’s share of the taxpayer-supported general fund — should be tapped first, they say.

Pennsylvania would impose the highest well permit fee in the nation if the proposal is adopted, the Robinson-based Marcellus Shale Coalition said.

PA-DEP’s oil and gas program reviews permit applications, inspects well sites and develops policies to improve oversight of the industry.

The monthlong public comment period on the proposal closed Monday. Common industry complaints in the comments included that past fee hikes did not lead to faster permit reviews, which dragged on well past mandated deadlines last year amid a shortage of reviewers, and that there is no guarantee the new proposal will have a different outcome.

Also, shale companies say they are being asked to subsidize oversight of the state’s conventional, storage and legacy wells, which take up about 40 percent of the agency’s workload.

While none of the industry commenters recommend raising fees on conventional drillers — and the department is not proposing any changes in conventional well fees — “it is readily apparent that PA-DEP is looking at the unconventional industry as a ‘cash cow,’” the Wexford-based Pennsylvania Independent Oil & Gas Association said.

A statewide environmental group, the Pennsylvania Environmental Council, said it is clear that state regulators and lawmakers need to identify other options to “provide more stable funding for the agency while maintaining protections and balancing costs for the regulated community.”

Department officials acknowledge that one-time shale well permit fees are not a sustainable funding source for a broad program of oil and gas oversight, and they have pledged to advocate for a more balanced funding mix.

One goal would be to pursue funding “that doesn’t require someone else” — meaning, other PA-DEP programs or state agencies — “to get shortchanged for our benefit,” Scott Perry, the deputy secretary for the department’s office of oil and gas management, said at an advisory board meeting last week.

“I welcome everyone’s good ideas on how to do that,” he said.

It generally takes more than a year for a PA-DEP regulation to take effect after it is first proposed. The review process includes scrutiny by committees in the Republican-led General Assembly, which also determines the agency’s annual general fund appropriation in conjunction with the governor.

Thirty-two Republican state representatives wrote to criticize the permit fee proposal and questioned whether the department has the authority “to propose such a disproportionate share of funding responsibility upon one segment of industry.”

Instead, they suggested PA-DEP use part of its general fund appropriation to support the oil and gas program.

Brent Broadwater with his cattle

From an Article by Mike Tony, Uniontown Herald Standard, June 3, 2018

Brent Broadwater walks through a pasture of red clover and alfalfa on his East Millsboro angus beef farm and wishes his cows could enjoy it. He knows his cattle would go crazy over the vegetation, but the pasture’s four to five acres are off limits to them now.

After years of seeing reproductive issues among his yearling heifers that grazed in the pasture, Broadwater is convinced that a shale gas well there damaged the health of those cows via a seep that formed at the bottom of the slope on the well’s south side.

“They don’t care about the farmer,” Broadwater said of Chevron and the state Department of Environmental Protection as he stood between the seep and the gas well.

In 2010, Atlas Energy developed the National Mines 26H natural gas well site on Broadwater’s property, and Chevron acquired it in 2011. Broadwater began to have problems with his herd almost immediately. The first two to three years after the well was drilled, only half of the heifers were pregnant, which struck him as highly unusual.

Broadwater bought a new bull, recalling that Chevron blamed his herd’s reproductive issues on the bull. The heifers continued to have trouble breeding, though, and about three years ago, Broadwater stopped making the pasture near the well available to his cattle.

He saw an increase in births right away. This year, the yearling heifers have had a 100 percent calving rate, having not been exposed to the 26H seep water.

But all of the cows that previously grazed in the pasture have continued to struggle with infertility issues and disappointing breeding rates, Broadwater said. He recounted with exasperation that his 3-, 4-, and 5-year-old cows, having been exposed to the seep water, have this year had four stillborn calves and one that was born with a cleft palate and died hours later.

Broadwater has no doubt that the seep is a direct result of the gas well, noting that the seep had killed grass below it for more than 300 feet below.

A lifelong farmer, Broadwater, 68, says he never had to deal with reproductive issues among his herd approaching this scale before. He thinks he and his wife Wanda know how to run a farm after all these years, and he recalled the veterinarian for his herd saying that whatever is killing the grass can’t be good for his cows, especially since the grass is their primary food source.

Broadwater acknowledges that neither Chevron nor the PA-DEP have identified a direct link between the gas well and his cows’ health issues.

Nate Calvert, policy, government, and public affairs advisor for Chevron, said Chevron and the DEP both independently investigated Broadwater’s claims, and based on analytical tests of several water samples and observations made by DEP inspectors during onsite investigation, the DEP determined that the surface water on the property was not an adverse effect of the oil and gas operation.

Calvert said Chevron adheres to all applicable state and federal regulations and responds to documented water complaints in accordance with all state and federal standards, including the Pennsylvania Oil and Gas Act, which regulates the drilling and operation of oil and gas wells. “Chevron is committed to protecting people and the environment, and to operating with integrity,” Calvert said.

PA-DEP carefully reviews and investigates every complaint that it receives, DEP Community Relations Coordinator Lauren Fraley said. DEP received one complaint for Broadwater’s site in Sept. 2016 and conducted an on-site inspection three days later. Chevron’s personnel and consultant were also on site. Both DEP and Chevron sampled two areas of saturatedground: one on the western portion of the site and one on the eastern portion of the site.

Following DEP’s laboratory analysis of the samples, the department determined that the saturated area was not an adverse effect of Chevron’s National Mines Corp. 26H gas well.

In April, DEP released the first four years of data on the structural soundness of oil and gas wells submitted by thousands of Pennsylvania’s operators, indicating that the majority are being operated in a manner that substantially reduces the risk for groundwater impact. Well operators are required to inspect wells on a quarterly basis for structural soundness to prevent gas migration, manage leaks and protect groundwater.

According to the data, submitted in 2014, less than 1 percent of operator observations indicated integrity problems, such as gas outside surface casing, which could allow gas to move beyond a well footprint and potentially cause environmental damage.

PA-DEP is responsible in Pennsylvania for reviewing permits and conducting inspections at oil and gas well sites, pipelines and compressor stations.

“Our members, who produce 95 percent of the natural gas in Pennsylvania, are committed to continuously improving technologies through the application of world-class engineering solutions and the implementation of best practices aimed at safeguarding our environment, which includes protecting groundwater and public health,” Marcellus Shale Coalition President David Spigelmyer said.

CONTINUED CONCERNS EXIST

Still, Broadwater and others in Luzerne Township have seen enough to convince them that gas wells aren’t good for their livestock or their community.

Phyllis Palmer, 67, of East Millsboro said that several of her husband’s cows have suffered unusual deformities in recent years, including two calves born with a deformed foot, in addition to four or five cow miscarriages.

“Don’t jump at the chance to get them on your property,” Palmer said of gas wells. “Because you don’t know what you’re gonna get.” Palmer said that the water she used to get from a well now tastes like a sewer and she buys water at Walmart instead.

Several area farmers and residents objected in February to Chevron’s request for a special exception to the Dogbone Centralized Water Facility in Luzerne Township, citing concerns about what the impact might be on their livestock.

The centralized water facility will serve as a temporary storage site for water that will be used for Chevron’s well development activities in the township, and Calvert said that the facility will significantly reduce truck traffic associated with Chevron operations.

Broadwater cited studies by veterinarian Dr. Michelle Bamberger and molecular medicine professor Dr. Robert Oswald that highlights the impacts of gas drilling on human and animal health based on interviews with animal owners who live near gas drilling operations.

A 2012 study by the pair noted eight cases of bovine health being impacted. In all eight cases, the issue was reproduction. Farmers reported an increased incidence of stillborn calves with and without congenital abnormalities such as cleft palate following exposure to affected well or pond water, or wastewater.

In a followup 2015 study, Bamberger and Oswald noted farmers in cases they followed longitudinally over an average of 25 months continued reporting cases of reproductive problems greater than what they had seen in their years of raising cattle, and that health symptoms improved for families moving out of areas with oil and gas industrial activity and living in areas where such activity decreased.

“Without complete studies, given the many apparent adverse impacts on human and animal health, a ban on shale gas drilling is essential for the protection of public health,” Bamberger and Oswald wrote in the 2012 paper, which some have criticized as being an advocacy piece.

In yellow highlighter, Broadwater noted a passage in his copy of the 2012 paper in which a family stopped using well water despite test results indicating the water was safe to drink. Despite losing a year of school, the family’s child gradually recovered after being found to have arsenic poisoning.

Broadwater is concerned about his daughter, who lives about 700 feet from the well, losing at least 10 goats within the past year, which he says is another abnormally high loss.

He’s considering suing Chevron, estimating that he’s lost between $40,000 and $50,000 in production scuttled by the infertility.

He doesn’t care what Chevron or DEP tells him the onsite findings indicate. His farming experience tells him a different story, and he wants Chevron to take responsibility.

“They should fix it,” Broadwater said.